Buffalo Bills to Start Thad Lewis vs. Bengals

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - The Buffalo Bills have elevated QB Thad Lewis from the practice squad and he is expected to get his first regular season start for the Buffalo Bills on Sunday against Cincinnati.

Bills Coach Doug Marrone said this morning, "Thad gives us the best chance. We're going to give him an opportunity to see what he has." At his weekly Monday press conference Marrone spoke more about what Lewis brings to the table. "You sit here and you look at it and really if you look at it from the beginning you're down a three-four. When you look around the league it's difficult when you get down to your third or your fourth quarterback. The thing with Thad is he's been in a game before. He played there and he's been around. I would've felt uncomfortable doing something earlier. We really couldn't do anything from a roster spot standpoint because we had some injuries. Obviously a kicker and with the DB's where we couldn't bring him up the roster. Now we have the ability to bring him up. He's someone who has a 66, and granted its one game, but he's a 66 percent completion, one touchdown, one interception, so he's been in there. He can run and he can extend plays--he can run the read option. He can throw the ball extremely well and having him with us from the time at Detroit to now, he's made some great gains because he knows the whole system. Now we just have to fit and game plan what we think he does best. It's not a point of one of the questions people normally ask is does he know the whole system? He does, he knows everything, he's bright as hell. Now it's the point of making sure we give him a plan that he can be successful with."

The Bills traded linebacker Chris White to Detroit for Lewis in August. Lewis was cut, then resigned to the practice squad last month.

Sunday will only be Lewis' second career NFL start. Monday afternoon Lewis spoke the chance to make his second career start in the NFL. Football is football. Last year was a great experience, a humbling experience and a childhood dream to start an NFL game, but since I've started an NFL game, now it's time to move on. You know what to do, you know what to expect, you know what you have to prepare this week, business as usual. I have a great sense of the game plan, a great grasp of it. Like every week, you don't just sit there on practice squad and not prepare as if you're a starter because that's your job, this is what you're supposed to do. You have to learn, you have to know the things that you have to do. I've been doing that every week, so this will just be a regular week for me; I just get the chance to start."

While Lewis seemed low key about his chance to start, Brian Moorman didn't hold back when he was asked about coming back to the Bills. " I'm thrilled, ecstatic to be back obviously. It's great to be in a familiar place and see familiar laces. To be in a community like this and the outpouring of support that I've had since I got back has kind of rendered me speechless. Just thrilled to be back. Just anything from messages on Twitter and Facebook, calls, texts. It took me hours to respond, but it's just been great. I didn't really expect that kind of response, but I think it's a big boost to me to know that I'm back. I just want to go out and do my part to help field position and help bring home a victory."